Probably reason number thousand odd why I love the web. Yesterday, while rummaging around Spotify Social, I found a playlist (here) that included the Quiet Village remix of one Jonathan Jeremiah’s ‘Happiness’. No, I hadn’t heard of him either, but when I did… WOW. Amazing, a combination of the heartbreak of Scott Walker, the soft orchestrations of Robert Kirby’s work with Nick Drake, and a little sprinkling of  Mayer Hawthorne. All pretty big wins in my book. A little bit more digging, led to Myspace, (still awful) but.. to my surprise and delight, there he was supporting Thirteen Senses (don’t sound half bad either) tonight at the Dingwalls. Serendipity or what?

Update tomorrow on the gig.

Check out the super cool video for the original mix of Happiness. A true summer heartbreaker.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Last year I posted a mix by the epically talented Mark E. His slo-mo disco opus was a revelation and without doubt the best mix of what already is supremely consistent level of quality from the team at RA. With 2010 just three months old we might just have another contender. This time an uptempo Funk/Disco/Latin/House combination that soundtracks the nascent spring vibes and comes from a real up and coming producer. Thompson. Timed to coincide with Thompson’s participation in the London Red Bull Music Academy (Which includes the epic evening of Todd Terje and Secret Sundaze atop the Centrepoint building), his mix highlights a brilliant, upbeat fusion of styles that are rooted in Black and Latino American music. This love of those genres makes the whole mix a rip roaring ride (it clocks in at an hour – just perfect) from Johnny Hammonds trip into the Mizells’ Brothers world to the NuYorican sounds of Little Louie Vega, it’s party music. Pure and simple. Get it on the iPod now and see what you think.

RA Podcast – Thompson

BBC4, for those abroad who will not have the pleasure of accessing this fantastic channel, have, since their launch done a series of brilliant deconstructions on some of the most important (and sometimes underappreciated) genres of music in the world. From Folk America, to Synth Britannia, they almost always have the knack to reveal something new about music you know intimately, or have the faintest of knowledge. Filled with first hand accounts, fantastic archival footage and strong, engaging storylines, they have become the highlights of the already strong programming line-up. As this week was Latin Music week, we saw a re-run of one such example. Latin Music USA.

This four part series charted the rise of Latin Music in the US, from the 1930′s to the present day. As the story unfolded it revealed, quite brilliantly how Latin Music, from Puerto Rico, Mexico and  Cuba has helped shaped the sounds and look of  20th Century America and by proxy, the larger western world. The programmes showed how these indigenous sounds evolved and adapted until they broke through into mainstream consciousness in the 1980′s and beyond. You might not think there is much of a link between the pop juggernaut of Ricky Martin’s ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’ to the underground sounds of a Hector LaVoe, or the brilliant Afro-Cuban grooves of Machito and His Afro-Cubans, back in the 1940′s but this programme sought to and did, make those connections and with it, herald a new appreciation of this overlooked musical world.

Starting with the adoption of Latin American percussion into the big band sounds of 1930/40′s New York we saw the rise of this new rhythm through the Jazz clubs of Harlem, helped by the legendary Dizzy Gillespie. How the first Latin American big bands that took the clubs like the Palladium by storm, which in turn led to the Mambo craze sweep through the suburban America, culminating in the monster hit of West Side Story (ironically starring not one true Latino in it’s main cast). Then onto the  ‘El Barrio’ Boogaloo music of Joe Bataan and Willie Colon in New York, which in turn gave birth to the extraordinary rise of Fania Records and the infectious Salsa grooves of the Fania All Stars with Cuban veteran singer Celia Cruz. The story then turned to the West Coast Latin experience, taking us through a journey of Chicano Rock and eventually to the crossover success of late Selena. The story ends on the Florida coast and the Cuban immigration explosion in Miami that led firstly to the mainstream success of Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine and then the worldwide success of Ricky Martin and a whole host of Latin crossover acts. Latin Music USA left us with the natural evolution of rap into Latin, with the rise of  Reggaeton.

In particular, the first two shows were outstanding, not only for their brilliant use of archival footage and first hand account witnesses, they also illustrated the inherent joy that is in this music, certainly the New York Salsa of the Fania All-Stars is as far as you could imagine from the grim image of Milton Keynes Salsa nights. But it is the infectiousness and exuberance of this musical style that helps it transcend it’s roots. You couldn’t help but be impressed with the style, passion and verve that generations of Latin musicians gave to their music, as well as their openness and willingness to assimilate musicians and styles of music that weren’t just “Latin”. Listening to an album like this for example, you can hear joy, excitement and passion pouring from each performer, it is a treat.

Latin Music is now on the BBC iPlayer. Enjoy!

Last month, the fantastic Dance music resource RA reviewed some of the best mixes over of the last decade. The list (here) showed the depth and breadth of Noughties Dance Music, it’s adventuorusness and rejection of the 1990′s superclub cul-de-sac. This was a decade that bought us the filthy fashioness of Electroclash, (anyone who ever went to a Electric Stew event would attest to that) the smooth Germanic innovations of Minimal House/Techno (pioneered by Kompakt, Get Physical et al) and the re-birth of Deep House and Dalston’s blast of Underground Disco. Of all the standout tracks that these genres spawned, there is still one that stands above all others it’s a track that blended the most interesting parts of many of Deep House, Techno and Minimal, that looked back as well as being gloriously futuristic, yet outside of Dance Music’s borders, criminally overlooked. This is Where We At.  In 2005, two German producers, under the guise of Âme, released Rej. A huge club hit, at the time, it presaged a return of the melodic dominance of Deep House, long dormant since the mid 90′s, with the minimal stylings of Booka Shade. Still to this day, it is hard to pinpoint what this music is, from Minmal Techno to Tech House, labels came and went to suit people as they pleased. At the same time, Dixon, another member of the Sonar Kollectiv team was setting up the Innervisions label, which would become the eventual home for Âme, Tokyo Black Star, Marcus Worgull and Henrik Schwarz, who formed the core DJ’s and producers of this genre.  The fifth release on Innervisions was a collaboration between Henrik Schwarz, Dixon and Âme, Where We At.

Sampling a spiky aggresive vocal line from Derrick L. Carter some four years previous, the three versions of Where We At take the rather desolate vocal and frame it around a groove that is both foreboding and moody yet hypnotic and wound tight with an infectious groove. It elevates the vocal to a manifesto, lines like ‘Is this all there is to life?’ take on darkly comic feel when you imagine where this track was meant to played, at peak time in small clubs and beachside summers, at the height of an individuals or collective’s losing it in the music. Where We At works as a fulcrum track, it perfectly sums up a time when Dance music wasn’t just hands in your air lunacy, it could be clever, it could comment, it critique, without losing it’s ability to move you in a serious serious way. A rare feat, and helps explain why Dance Music has approached the 10′s in good creative health, if not brilliant financial health.

Two other brilliant places to hear Where We At in context are Dixon’s live mix from 2006  as well as Henrik Schwarz’s Live (2007), which took the attitude, style and flourishes and transposed it through a live set that fuses Sun Ra and James Brown with the most forward thinking parts of the Innervisions sound. It stands as a great showcase for what Where We At represents, a brilliant combination of melody, groove and electronica still is as fresh as anything from Dance music in 2010.

Henrik Schwarz, Dixon & Âme – Where We At (Version Nº1)

This is certainly one of the tracks (and remixes) of 2010. Baby Don’t Stop is from the prolific hand of Nu-Disco pioneer Lindstrøm and is the fantastic result of a collaboration between himself and the vocalist/lyricist Christabelle (A.K.A Solale). Their long-player Real Life Is No Cool is a prime slice of 1980′s boogie and nu-disco joy  The album itself has been knocking around the producers mind for a while and came to fruition only after Christabelle took the tracks that make up Lindstrøm’s classic opus You Go Where I Go To and dropped her own vocals and lyrics over the top. A rather chaotic process ensued, but what a good one it is!  (Check out this review here for full album highlights and what not)

With all that good karma knocking around, it’s no wonder Baby Don’t Stop is an absolute dancefloor monster, and not just for disco nerds or hipster dancefloors. It feels like something out of a 1980, a lost acetate from one of Quincy Jones sessions with the Brothers Johnson or George Benson. Don’t be fooled though, this is not a retro re-rub for the sake of it, the Nu-Disco groove that made Lindstrøms’ collaborations with Prins Thomas so compelling and hypnotic is still there, tight yet liquid at the same time.

It’s a great platform then for remixers of certain vintage to get their chops around, which luckily, two of the best have done, Aeroplane takes the track and bolsters it’s cosmic brushstrokes and amps them up, taking a similar approach to their awesome remix of Williams Blood by Grace Jones last year. While Aeroplane fly through the cosmos, the Idjut Boys Re-edit ramps up the groove, bending and twisting an already great dancefloor track into something that a John Morales 12″ might sound like. (More to come on this guy) It’s a track you could put on in an empty room and be pretty sure the dancefloor would be full up soon after. Good work boys. And keep an eye out for more mixes of this one, it’s got the lot.

Lindstrom & Christabelle Baby Don\’t Stop (Aeroplane Remix)

Lindstrom & Christabelle Baby Don\’t Stop (Idjut Boys Re-Edit)

A couple of nights ago, I witnessed another of the wonderful don’t look back series of concerts. For those that don’t know, the concerts, organized by the ATP collective, function as a forum for bands (usually of the high quality variety) to play one of their most iconic albums from end to end. It serves as a perfect platform for performers to find and discover new and interesting subtexts in their classic works. With this in mind, it seems a perfect union when talking about one of Britain’s greatest bands; Spiritualized. 1997′s Ladies And Gentleman We Are Floating In Space is rightly regarded as a classic, a magnum opus to lost love and broken hearts, as well as significant side order of drug induced stupors. All the elements were right for a special gig. It didn’t disappoint. 

Contrary to the prevailing musical trends, Ladies And Gentleman is expansive, challenging and unrivalled in it’s scope. It’s status in those intervening 13 years has only grown, while it’s contemporaries (I’m looking at you Be Here Now) have withered with age. The jazzy-esque nature of much of Ladies And Gentleman mean’t that there was huge scope to explore and expand on the album. The live setting bought new clairty (and ferocity) to the album. The highs and lows of the music came into sharper focus, the lyrics, although dominated by the pseudo wall of sound from the musicians where picked out and emphasised with an almost unnatural precision. But for all these points of clarity, the whole expereince was as close as you would get to feeling and seeking the rush, the high, the comedowns of the psychdelic experience. At times, the combination of strobes, free jazz noise (Making a lot more sense in a live setting) and choirs left you wandering around the farthest corners of your mind, yet four to five minutes later bought down to earth with a glorious glide. It was a disorientating but exhilarating experience.

The Acoustic Mainlines gigs from 2007 had also clearly left their mark on the interpretations, that gig (which was my first ever blog post back in 2006) made each song a potential tear-jerker, they also bought a beauty and fragility to many Spiritulized songs. So it was magical to witness the Gospel choir and orchestra soaring in the elegaic Cool Waves (And surprisingly, revealed itself as the probably the better album closer, Cop Shoot Cop is a leap too far – but still amazing) ) and the tearjerking (and super rare) airing of the ‘Elvis Mix’ Of ‘ album opener Ladies And Gentleman We Are Floting In Space. Sampling ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ by Elvis Presley, this was the original opening to the album until litigation from the Presley estate forced the change. It was joyous and redemptive expreince to hear it restored to it’s rightful place, Setting the scene almost perfectly for the emtional rollercoaster you are about to embark on.

But of all the songs, the one that REALLY stood out was the fulcrum of the album itself – Electricity. On the album, it is firestorm of feedback, dronal guitar lines and furious drumming, the live version stretched these reference points to their maximum, smashing ‘Electric’ Miles, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and MC5 together in an awe-inspiring five minutes. The electric Jazz elements made perfect sense in this setting, validating the (undervalued) contributions of Spring Hell Jack on the album. Add in a light show that would not have been out of place in 1989 and you can only start to imagine the strength of force that this song, and the gig as whole exerted on the audience.

Here’s the inevitable youtube video (WARNING. If you don’t like strobes, walk away now…)

With the last bars of Cop Shoot Cop ringing in the ears, the encore posed many questions, would the classic (and apt) Walking With Jesus make an appearance? Would, with a full gospel choir in tow, we hear the rousing and brilliant Oh Happy Day?  Well it was neither, it was the rolling thunder of Out Of Sight (a personal favourite from the 2001 follow-up Let It Come Down) and then the most glorious curveball you could get at Christmas. A rendition of Silent Night, with brilliant slide guitars and choirs totally changing the standard to something that Gram Parsons and The Flying Burrito Brothers would have been proud of. It was a truly cosmic and brilliantly surreal ending to the gig that helps define why Spiritualized, even after almost twenty years of making uncomprimising, beautiful and visionary music, are still as relevant and vital as ever. A true national treasure and an unexpectedly magical Christmas present.

As little bit extra in the stocking. Enjoy…

Spiritualized Ladies And Gentleman We Are Floating in Space (Elvis Mix)

Everyone else is doing a best of, so why not join in the fun? Here is the best dance track of the year. The super, super deep Androids And Stardust by Brawther. If found this gorgeous slice of deep house at the start of one of the best RA Podcasts of the year, from Giles Smith, the co-founder of the consistently brilliant Secret Sundaze parties. The whole mix is a wonderful journey that only Secret Sundaze does best, super deep but highly groovy music, clever, articulate and sexy. This track set the tone for the entire mix. Buy it here…

Over the weekend I read this rather heartbreaking sign-off to the music industry from one it’s most talented, prolific and sadly under appreciated producers. Dominic Stanton, or Domu as he (was) commonly known as. In his long sign off you really get a sense that the trials and tribulations of the making music have now become too much, so with that I feel compelled to add my appreciation by shedding a little bit of light onto the album that led me to discover his work (and there is LOTS of it). His Pete Simpson collaboration Look A Little Further.Released in 2007, this album pairs the soulful sounds of Pete Simpson’s cracking vocals with the brilliantly textured beats of Domu. What’s great about the album on initial listen it feels like a ‘traditional’ neo-soul album, with it’s formalised song structures, and vocals tricks, but similarly to D’Angelo’s classic Brown Sugar, the backing tracks are where the action really happens. It’s multi-layered, densely rich with references from all of Domu’s previous work. Samba shuffles butt up next to soulful jazz hooks or veering into straight-up house, yet always interspersed with the classic Broken Beat sound that recalls Jazzanova at it’s best. (Indeed, listen to this cut with Paul Randolph on their new album and it could have come from Look A Little Further – just sayin’…) It’s these perfect blends of classic hooks and futurist rhythms that make the album so distinctive, but, alas, probably sank it as well. For the unfortunate reality is the album never found a wider audience. Indeed, I only stumbled upon after hearing one of the tracks by chance on an MP3 site and being a fan of similar styled work thought I would give it a go. In that regard, it reminds me of the way that one of my all time favorite albums Lewis Taylor never found it’s audience, yet was just as extraordinary in it’s ambition and execution. His work lives on and continues to grow to this day for the dedication and passion people have for his music. Taylor retired from the music industry beaten and disillusioned, in a very similar way to Domu did this weekend, I hope that the tens of thousands of fans of Domu’s work will continue to treasure his music. I write this in the hope that others will post, promote this man’s music in similar fashion. Good luck Domu, in whatever you do next.

Buy Look A Little Further here…

Here’s the Spotify link as well…

Here’s another great collaboration Domu on the new Swell Session album. Smoooth.

The Micheal Jackson post death juggernaut rolls on a-pace. This time Motown have raided the ‘archives’ for 12 slices of Jackson 5 material. Snappily titled “I Want You Back!” – Unreleased Masters”, it could just be another cash-in (OK, well it is) But is salvaged by this stunning interpretation of the Stevie Wonder song ‘Buttercup’, one of his less well known numbers but without a doubt one of the best. Someone got a cheeky pre-release and in their good wisdom decided to put it on YouTube. It’s such a slick groovy interpretation, with amazing harmonies underpinning Jackson’s vocal perfectly.

Take a listen.

Here’s another classic version by Carl Anderson…

The late sixties were a strange time for many stars of the mid sixties rock boom. But their (relative) fall from grace more often than not provided music of a rare and beautiful delicacy. One of the lost classics in this genre within an genre is the solos ingle from Sal Valentino. The Van Dyke Parks produced Friends & Lovers’ from 1969. Sal Valentino had found huge success with the seminal rock group the Beau Brummels from the early sixties til their fantastic album Bradley’s Barn in 1968, the group could do no wrong, but as with many other groups of the time (such as Paul Revere & The Raiders) the passage of time and the evolution to the ‘serious’ rock groups and Singer Songwriters of CSN(Y) and the soul rock of Blood Sweat and Tears had left guys like the Beau Brummels with a serious credibility gap. Faced with this development, many of these groups either disbanded, or factioned off with some members taking ‘serious’ approaches to the music they were making.

Two people who had found themselves stuck in this very dilemma were Valentino and his producer, the L.A producer and all round whiz-kid Van Dyke Parks, his last shot at solo success (the crazily ambitious Song Cycle) had people mystified and Parks somewhat disillusioned with the sudden turn of events. It’s the context of these two souls adrift in an ever changing musical landscape that make Friends Lovers such a compelling listen.

Backed by the Wrecking Crew – the insanely talented collection of studio musicians that soundtracked the first golden age of L.A rock, the song has an echoey haunted quality, with the Valentino’s vocals drawn out, with a country twang right at the top of his pitch. It’s this slightly country feel to some to the backing track combined with mournful mumbled horn sections that hint at a soundtrack style arrangement that makes this song so weird and so beguiling. Van Dyke’s production is spaced out, filled with little details that reveal themselves in small pockets throughout the record. At a little over 2 minutes it’s a wonder all of this is crammed in. Which makes the end of the track so compelling and offputting. Dissolving into itself as if for that moment in time, everyone has just given up, is looking for something new. It’s a truly remarkable ending that sums up so much about this period of time.

Valentino followed up this mumbled ending with a progressive rock act called Stoneground, but achieved little success, a band lost in the pack as the sixties turned into the seventies, with returns intermittently to the Beau Brummels to show for the decade. For Van Dyke Parks, the seventies was spent at the helm of the wildly successful Warner/Reprise Records, which was at the epicentre of the Singer Songwriter boom.

The “45 is insanely hard to find, as unsurprisingly it didn’t sell in great numbers, so here is the only copy I know in existence, which I ripped from a fantastic podcast ‘Come To The Sunshine’ Which celebrates all things L.A and 60′s. Check it out.

Sal Valentino Friends & Lovers